Cyber Summit

A top-level Air Force meeting on cyber next week, called by new Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh, likely won’t produce any substantial new policy decisions, said Air Force Space Command chief Gen. William Shelton. Speaking at an AFA-sponsored seminar in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 7, Shelton said he doesn’t believe Welsh is “looking for definitive decisions on the way ahead.” Instead, “we’re just trying to get the whole team on the same sheet of music on how we’re thinking on cyber,” said Shelton. On the agenda is a discussion of “what US cyber command wants; the demand signal coming from them; . . . force-presentation issues; and necking down the definition” of what constitutes the cyber domain, said Shelton. “We need to get that down” and “then decide as an Air Force what direction we’re going,” he explained. Shelton admitted to doing some “expectation management” and said he doubted that the meeting would yield a document that articulates: “we decided the following things.”